Mary Boone, the famous New York saleswoman who went to prison for tax fraud, is the subject of a new Vampire Weekend song that shares her name.
But the song is less an ode to his gallery, which has boosted the profiles of artists ranging from Barbara Kruger to Ai Weiwei, than an elegy to a New York era. The single, released this Thursday, only abstractly references Boone’s business and the subsequent scandal surrounding his personal finances, using his name primarily within a rhyming scheme.
“Mary Boone, Mary Boone,” Vampire Weekend director Ezra Koenig can be heard chanting at various points. “I’m on the dark side of your moon. Mary Boone, Mary Boone, well, I hope you’ll feel like loving someone soon.’
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Boone launched his gallery in 1977, and in the coming years would become one of the leading dealers in the thriving SoHo art scene. Before the gallery closed in 2019, it hosted major shows for Julian Schnabel, Eric Fischl, Ross Bleckner, Jean-Michel Basquiat and many others.
That year, Boone’s reputation changed forever when he was convicted of tax evasion. He pleaded guilty last year to owing $3 million in back taxes between 2009 and 2011. A court sentenced him to 30 months in prison, but he completed only 13 because he was released in early 2020 because of a surge in Covid cases among inmates. .
“Mary Boone”, the Vampire Weekend song is featured Only God was above us, the beloved rock band’s new album and first since 2019. The songs released from the LP so far refer to generational shifts that seem more rooted in Manhattan’s past. The album cover is a 1988 Steven Siegel photograph of a graffiti-covered spinning New York subway car with people fooling around.
“Memories and pictures and weird, half-baked thoughts and family history. That’s the version of New York floating around on this album,” Koenig told him New York Times in a profile of the album earlier this month.
